As someone expecting his first Win phone next week (Lumia 920), I find myself cruising the Windows App store and wondering if, despite the apparent strong sales and enthusiastic response to the L920, are we kidding ourselves into thinking that any real surge in App development for the Win Phone ecosystem is right over the horizon? I want to believe....

With the exception of a few keys apps for me (Instagram, SiriusXM Satellite Radio, and perhaps Pandora) I'm not at all concerned with the "lack of support" for the ecosystem. With Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 sharing the same kernel, apps will start to flow in very soon. Then, maybe, this whole "lack of apps" excuse will be gone.

A little of both, I think. We'll never have an Android- or iOS-sized marketplace. However, as Microsoft builds on - and promotes - the platform, we will see more app developers adopting Windows Phone. It remains to be seen if the platform will capture the big-name commercial developers or not, though.

I'm actually surprised by the lack of apps. After 2 years of wp7 (go go samsung focus) my wife switched to Iphone5 (lumia was too big for her) and even though she hates IOS, we both noticed that Apple app store has waaaay more good games.
My kids have a lot of choices to play on the iphone, and on my lumia games are sparse.. good thing they have N4S in there:)

I really hope that app developers will start writing games for WP8 soon.

Instagram and Flipboard would be huge for me. And no, Fhotoroom doesn't suffice cause no one I know is on it. And I heard Weave being mentioned as a Flipboard alternative. I've tried it and its just nowhere the functionality and aesthetics of Flipboard

I still see a HUGE lack of apps from the commercial businesses - banks, credit unions, sports (Football, Baseball, Hockey). Two of my credit unions do not have WP apps and none of my sports teams have WP apps. Until WP gets to a critical mass (8-10%) I don't think the businesses are going to put programming resources (especially smaller players like credit unions or smaller regional banks) against WP or even the new BB 10. We can argue until the cows come home about whether these are important to you - I know they are to me and can't consider WP until they have more of these types of apps. I think that MS has left an opening for BB 10 to actually have a prayer to succeed since BB still has more Market share than WP.

I still see a HUGE lack of apps from the commercial businesses - banks, credit unions, sports (Football, Baseball, Hockey). Two of my credit unions do not have WP apps and none of my sports teams have WP apps. Until WP gets to a critical mass (8-10%) I don't think the businesses are going to put programming resources (especially smaller players like credit unions or smaller regional banks) against WP or even the new BB 10. We can argue until the cows come home about whether these are important to you - I know they are to me and can't consider WP until they have more of these types of apps. I think that MS has left an opening for BB 10 to actually have a prayer to succeed since BB still has more Market share than WP.

Agreed Microsoft is just a niche device in the mobile world. They came way too late when everybody is already established and comfortable with either iOS/Android. Microsoft "May" be able to make it... But I don't see BB or Amazon's OS or anybody else being a big player unless they bring something entirely new.

A little of both, I think. We'll never have an Android- or iOS-sized marketplace. However, as Microsoft builds on - and promotes - the platform, we will see more app developers adopting Windows Phone. It remains to be seen if the platform will capture the big-name commercial developers or not, though.

Regarding the quantity of apps and comparing it to IOS or Android i have to agree with you.
Microsoft is focusing more on quality over quantity. Majority of apps in IOS and Android are repetitions of another. Microsoft don't want that to happen. That's why our marketplace is going to have less but better apps.

I switched from iOS to WP8. I'm hoping there are many others like me and that this will attract those developers. I also have faith that the correlation between Windows 8 and WP8 will be enough to convince developers to come to the platform. I am sold on the solid hardware and "Modern UI", I just need the developers to be sold too.

I think Windows 8 will be a catalyst. If you look at it as of right now, it looks bad. IOS has an established foothold and Android has gained popularity in the low-cost phone and tablet market as well as the high end.

But things can change quickly in the consumer market. One part of me thinks that IOS and Android have so much momentum that they are now unstoppable. Another part says that Windows 8 is going to be unstoppable and that Android will get pushed out because it doesn't have a decent desktop counterpart and Android has a number of issues (legal and otherwise).

We'll see, I don't think it's a done deal either way. iPhone5 hardware is limited in my opinion due to screen size, price and proprietary crap. Android is limited due to fragmentation, with Samsung and Nexus devices being the two big flavors (forgetting amazon for a moment).

The Windows 8 game engine availability will change things, but it's going to take a little bit of time, probably a couple months, but I think we'll see a steady stream of apps from January; including Pandora

I have everything I need except Citrix receiver, and that'll be along before too long. Personally Im not the least bit concerned. Microsoft has wisely ensured the future of WIndows Phone development by making great developer tools and more importantly, by making it very simple to develop an app for the Windows 8 desktop and Windows Phone at the same time. The latter is what convinces me more than anything that we are going to see a rising tide of great apps in 2013.

A major issue here has been that the WP8 emulator requires SLAT, (Secondary Level Address Translation), no comment. Many developers current CPUs dont support this and it will slow down the flow of native WP8 apps.

Also as you might of read in my other posts Im looking for a touchscreen laptop to do WP8 development that must have more than 8GBs of RAM I need to run my VMs for non Win8 and WP8 development and they simply dont exists. Gesture mice and touch pads dont cut it and many devs travel to client sites so a desktop solution is out.

Its one thing to cause new hardware expenditure and another for there being nothing to buy.

I have everything I need except Citrix receiver, and that'll be along before too long. Personally Im not the least bit concerned. Microsoft has wisely ensured the future of WIndows Phone development by making great developer tools and more importantly, by making it very simple to develop an app for the Windows 8 desktop and Windows Phone at the same time. The latter is what convinces me more than anything that we are going to see a rising tide of great apps in 2013.

Mark Templeton (CEO of Citrix) presented to a group of IT pro's a few weeks ago on the future of Citrix. I was lucky enough to be there. He was demoing with a Sony Win8 tablet / convertible and was saying how we was using it at home. It's very clear that they have a heavy focus on IOS and Android, but it was also clear that they don't always agree with the decisions that Apple makes.

EDIT: @Socialcarpet - As you likely know, Citrix receiver is in preview for Windows 8 and WP8 (it was on one of his slides). It was clear that Citrix is no longer all about Windows, but windows phone was mentioned several times in his presentation.